"We had always wondered, where are the (immigrant) doctors from Latin America?" says Dr. Patrick Dowling, chairman of UCLA's Department of Family Medicine. "And we stumbled upon them working in menial jobs."

Instead of treating patients, Dowling says, many doctors spend years cleaning houses or working on construction sites and in fast-food chain restaurants.

"We heard from one woman working at McDonald's in Colorado," says Dowling. "So she is selling fast food to people, and if she were licensed as a physician, she could be educating those same people, those same patients, on what a good diet is."

Latino immigrant doctors have a harder time than other immigrants transitioning into the U.S. health system, according to Dowling.

"Often they work in their own country for 10 years and then come here and they aren't licensed, and then they see how hard the process is and they have to get an odd job to support themselves."

That's why Dowling and his colleague, Dr. Michelle Bholat, have developed a program at UCLA that helps fast-track Latino immigrant doctors into the U.S. health care system, the International Medical Graduate program.

The IMG program provides test prep classes and clinical observations with UCLA doctors. It also covers the cost of the U.S. medical board exam and provides a monthly stipend.

Funded by private donors, the program has helped 66 Latino immigrant doctors pass the board exams and get placed into residency programs in California. In return, the doctors commit to working three years in an underserved area.

Dr. Jose Chavez is one of those graduates.

He was a doctor in El Salvador with more than eight years of medical training when he moved to the United States in 2005.

But prior to last year, he wasn't working in a U.S. hospital -- or any hospital. Instead, he was cleaning houses and installing flooring.

"I would do anything you asked me to as long as it was legal and you paid me for it," he says.

Chavez says without the help of UCLA's IMG program, he would still be working odd jobs to pay the bills while juggling his time to study for the test at night.

"It requires you study at least 10 hours a day," says Chavez. "Imagine you are working 10 hours a day, and then try to study 10 hours at night. It is really impossible."

The stipend allowed Chavez to stop cleaning homes and focus solely on his studies. He passed the U.S. medical board exam just six months after being accepted into the program.

Today, he is a first-year resident at Riverside County Regional Medical Center in California -- a place in desperate need of doctors. Riverside County has just one primary care physician for every 9,000 residents, according to the hospital.

"I personally know at least 20 more (Latino immigrant) doctors who are delivering pizza, and instead they could be working as doctors if they had the help I had," say Chavez.